To think if you accept so much help from PIL you shouldn't bitch?

My friend has two DC's aged 3 and 2. She is a married SAHM and her husband works part time. His parents have been very involved in their DC's life since their first son was born. They have them for weekends a lot and are always buying them clothes or shoes. They also paid for friend and her husband to move into their current house.

This weekend friend and her husband will be going away to a hotel just the two of them, leaving DC with PIL. She commented that she's so excited to go but a bit annoyed because she knows PIL will spoil DC with treats and they will behave badly. She constantly makes comments to me along these lines, and has said she has been rethinking their role in the DCs lives as she doesn't like the way they look after them (from what I've gathered this means the amounts of treats they get).

Today I gently suggested that if she's happy to accept so much free child care from them maybe she should be grateful rather than critical. Not in those exact words and I do think I phrased it non confrontationally but friend certainly didn't see it that way. She got upset and said I was against her, and currently won't talk to me.

Was I being unreasonable? Kicking myself for not sticking to the standard 'hmming' and 'aahing'

YANBU however I sort of understand. I dont like some of the things that DS's grandparents give him BUT I grit my teeth as they are not "end of the world" things and the bottom line is that I am more grateful for what they do do,rather than what they do. I put up and shut up.

You don't know the dynamic about the PILs being so involved - maybe she would rather they weren't so involved but feels she has no choice against the PILs and her DH? Not all 'help' is helpful, it can be pressure for 'access' rather than 'help' and if a mother is pressured into leaving her children with the GPs a lot then she doesn't also give up her right to any opinion of how they then care for the children.

YANBU. It is never nice to hear when you think your opinion is absolutely right and it isn't to someone else but maybe she'll get over the initial reaction and think on what you said later. It might even change her perspective a little.

I'm pregnant with my first and the culture in DHs family is for his mum to do lots of childcare. She did for SILs kids and DH expects the same relationship for our child. He himself spent a lot of time at his Gran's growing up and valued that relationship.I am ok to go along with that, if it's what they all want (within reason, when DC is old enough) but it doesn't mean that I'm a 'spoilt cow' or that I should be enternally on my knees with gratitude and cannot say if I feel my LO is being over-indulged.

badguider I don't think she should never be able to voice her opinions but I do feel to constantly criticise how they look after DC and bitch about them and their interference but then happily drop kids off with them when she wants a weekend away frequently is out of order.

I'm accepting help from my parents right now. It's torture. I've decided it's a good move long term, so I am swallowing my upset. My mother can say the most incredibly hurtful things to me and i just have to try not to get upset. Because if I get upset, she gets angry with me. It's so hard. I can't wait til i don't need her help. I only let off steam to a couple of people who GET it. Others would just say well land on your own two feet then. I am planning to. But it can't be done overnight.

I may well have projected my own feelings onto this as I'm a single mum with no help from my parents or exPIL and would be eternally grateful if DS had grandparents that wanted to give me a break and spoil him!!

Yanbu. One of the pluses of having fairly (or completely) useless grandparents on both sides is that I don't have to be polite or grateful. If we were accepting money or childcare or support I'd have to be quite different.

She sounds very immature - if she doesn't want their help so much then she could look for ways to avoid them having to have the children so much - instead she's more than happy for them to have them when it suits her and for lengthy periods of time. Perhaps their "help" isn't always "helpful" but she could explain this to you instead of being childish and not speaking to you. I think she just doesn't like you pointing out that in fact she's using her PIL's. If she really didn't agree with the amount of treats the children get she could talk to her OH about it and they could approach the subject together but it sounds like she just wants to moan about them and be ungrateful.

Yes, i'm projecting my own future concerns too - don't we all. I have some future GPs who will want to be VERY involved, and I will work hard to allow it, but it'll be hard, and they'll probably have my baby more than I'd like... but I know other people will think I 'have it easy' because of the child-free time

I have a friend who bitches about her local MIL constantly, but whenever she needs a babysitter, has a clash of where her DC (4 and 8) need to be, running late for school pick up, wants to go away for the w/e, mil is there. She doesn't know she's born. My parents and PIL are at least 200 miles away, every second of childcare I need I pay for and I travel home from work every day in a state of anxiety about the M1 and whether I am going to get to nursery on time.

I hate listening to mums who get loads of free family help moan about the people helping them, makes me stabby, would love to see how they'd manage with FA help like the rest of us, that'd give them something to moan about